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Not following you here. Not sure what a "local official" is? Are you trying to say that someone printed out the payouts for the previous pro ams and handed them out at the captains meeting? As far as I'm concerned, the payouts should be available the day after the last day of registration. If further sponsors come forward, the new payouts should be handed out at the captains meeting (but they should never go lower than what the payouts were the day after registration closed). After the captain's meeting, they should NEVER change. It would be like me telling you to go mow my lawn and I'd give you $50 next week. Next week comes and I got laid off so I didn't get paid that week, so I tell you sorry, I'm only going to pay you $25. I'm sure there is some misunderstanding on the Wayne pro am, but look at it from the angler's perspective... they don't care who's fault it is, just that they feel they got cheated. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I'm sure some of those anglers won't be back this year. Oh and while I'm at it, I never got the outdoor magazine subscription I won and put my mailing address down for either Nick

Well I believe the LOC is a bit different as that is a private run derby (aka they need to make a profit... probably not big, but a profit none the less). The reallocation of $$ in Wayne last year just kinda bugged me as one of the teams were good friends of mine. The other thing that bugged me was that they didn't have the rod/reel combos we won until a couple of months after the tournament and poor Rod (Lucky Enuff) had to drive up to the lake because they wouldn't ship them.... that's a five hour drive for him. The only advice I can give you is to not join the derbies, pro ams, $10 bet with your buddy, in hopes of winning big $$$. Join them for the competition, pride, and glory of picking on your friends. Nick

C'mon, raising the out of state fee from $35 to $70 is going to make people stop fishing? I dont' think so. Most people spend more than that $35 extra in beer each day on the water Seriously though, fishing isn't exactly cheap with gas, dockage, etc. I don't think the annual will hurt too much. I wish they'd lower the 1 day nonresident to $5 as well though to help increase the amount of people who come to NY to "try" fishing Lake Ontario. Nick

I know last year at the Wayne pro am captain's meeting they handed out a paper with the payouts. However they drastically lowered some of the amature payouts after the second day of fishing to as I was told "give the pros more as they were complaining". I'd love to hear the story behind that if anyone knows. I don't believe 1st - 3rd were affected. Nick

There's always Arneys also

oh ok good to know. I'll see if I can find someone before hand though just in case! Will you be back in Sodus this weekend now that the pro ams out west are done or are you headed over to oswego now? If you're back I'm sure we'll see you out there. Nick

when you say "there", where is there? Do you mean where I go to drop off the check? Sorry for the confusion. Nick

Hey Bob... amatuer. Nick

Good idea, that would be a lot easier and with the fleas showing up save me some time! Nick

All good points. I'm pretty sure the rest of the tournaments won't be won with big bags of kings either. Maybe I'll try out the browns this weekend, although more than likely I'll be too lazy to spool some rods with light line Nick

Team Ruff Rider needs an observer for the wayne county pro am on July 18th and 19th. You'd be more than welcome to pre fish with us on Friday July 17th as well. Contact me at [email protected]. Nick

Yeah I had liked that they changed it to 6 ... guess it's my turn to complain Maybe it's just me, but I HATE fishing for browns! I don't often catch 9 fish in a morning out of Sodus either. I'd feel better about it if it seperated the really good king fisherman from the average king fisherman, but when a team can go catch 9 browns and beat a team with 5 kings, it just erks me. I wonder what would happen if they got rid of the 10 points per fish and just based it on weight? No more nine 5lb browns worth 135pts, now just worth 45points. Then the five 15lb kings would be 65points instead of 115. Maybe it's just me, but I give more credit to a catch of 5 15lb kings than 9 browns. Don't get me wrong, both are awesome days of fishing... Nick

wow looks like I should start taking the 30min boat ride towards pultneyville! Nick

Anyone know why they changed the amateur limit to 9 in the pro-am? It just doesn't make sense to me. Most of the pro ams, the ams didn't even reach the 6 fish limit. I'm afraid it's going to make the pro-ams into a brown fishing tournament in Sodus and Oswego Nick

VERY slow weekend out of Sodus. Anyone else starting to get a bit nervous about a poor season? Looking back at fishing reports from last year, we were into the kings by now. Friday evening: Got out around 6:30 and headed a bit east. The screen looked good, found some bait and the occasional fish. Never moved a rod. Saturday morning: Headed east again but the screen was gone. A few fish here and there. Went 3 for 4 working 120-150 fow, one real nice steelie off the planer board, another small steelie off the board, a big ol laker off the 180' dipsey, and a nicer king off the 50' rigger that we lost after a short fight. Sunday morning: Another sucky day. Managed to avoid the skunk with a small coho off the cheater on the 60' rigger. That was it the entire morning. Another real slow weekend. Some of the guys targeting steelies did a few fish, some targeting browns did a few fish, but those of us targeting kings really hurt. The way things look now, I'd better brush up on my brown fishing as it looks like the Pro-am is going to turn into a brown tournament again Nick

It's been very very slow out of Sodus. I'm yet to catch a king over 10lbs since coming back from Niagara the first weekend of June. Hopefully, it's just because the lake is so cold, but I'm getting a bit nervous as to how this season is going to pan out. Nick

Slow weekend out of Sodus. Friday fished from 6pm-8pm and went 3 for 4. Fished mostly 150-200fow fish were down 70'. Nothing real big, two kings around 5-8lbs and two steelies off the planer board with three split shot. Saturday morning we ended up 2 for 3 with a small king down 100' and small steelie off the planer. It was slow and we marked very few fish. Saturday evening was even worse, we went 0 for 1 and the 1 was a small shaker that hit a cheater and never hooked up. The water was just barren. Sunday morning we didn't fare much better. We ended the day 3 for 5 with a 15lb laker 120' down over 140fow, and two small steelies off the planer board. The only nice rip we had all weekend came on a full core over 150fow with a black spoon with green and glow ladderbacks. Sunday we marked maybe 2 fish the ENTIRE day. The water was just dead. We worked from 50fow to 250fow and there was just nothing out there. Hopefully next weekend will be better! Nick

Ray my luck isn't like Rod's... I'd blow my engine on the way out to fish as opposed to on the way back in and end up as one of those guys with zero fish. No one would ever know it was because of a blown engine, they'd just see a big old 0 next to my name. I know my friends would try not to treat me differently, but I'd see the shame in their eyes... Nick

Rod I actually wasn't even going to enter them this year until the wife brought it up I think she just wants me to embarrass myself when I come in two spots from the bottom! The Oswego one is up in the air as a big old maybe for now, Sodus is more likely. We may just do one, don't know... Nick

Hey Guys, With the new boat we're thinking of joining the east end pro-ams this year. The questions I have are for Oswego. We've never fished or docked there. Can anyone suggest a marina for a couple of days that lets you sleep on your boat? Also, does the boat need to be in that port by any given date or just by 5am the morning of the tourney? And does it need to stay in that port? AKA can I trailer it to a parking lot and sleep in it there, then relaunch in the morning? Nick

ok cool, give us a shout we'll be out there most weekends and are usually on Ch9. Nick

rdebats, What marina are you out of and boat name? We're out of Arneys, still working on a boat name for the new boat. Nick

Global warming my ass! We froze our butts off on the lake this morning. With one of the strongest east winds I have ever seen yesterday, I wasn't expecting much today. Sure enough, the lake was a steady 40 degress from top to bottom from 50fow to 350fow. We managed to find a school of fish in the first hour in 150fow though and go 4 for 4 with one teenage king (180' dipsey with mt.dew flasher/mt.dew fly), two cohos (orange and pink spoon with 3 splitshot off planer) and one 5lb king (120' dipsey with black ice spinny and green fly). The rest of the day we searched and managed only two more bites, one 5lb king on a gold and yellow spoon down 65' over 305fow and a 6lb steelie over 160fow on a 10color leadcore with a magnum glow frog. Another slow day, we should have run down to the bar, but the weather lady was forecasting rough seas... lake was as flat as ice all morning. Tomorrow the weather lady says it will be calm seas, hopfeully she's right! Nick

I was out on the lake when this happened, was definitely a tense few minutes!!!! I do need to bring up the a few issues I heard with the coast guard however.... first off, they need to train their people to speak CLEARLY. I was in wilson and imagine my reception was better than those in Olcot and there were times where it was hard to understand the guy at the coast guard station and not due to static. Secondly, I was about ready to flip out when the coastie told the rescue boat that they weren't allowed to bring the people in to shore for medical attention because they wanted them to stay there so they could mark the sunken vessel when their boat showed up in 20 mins!!!! They should have simply asked for their GPS location and then told them to take the people into shore where an ambulance would be waiting. I thought it was kinda ridiculous and was about to say so on the radio when another boat chimed in (kinda ticked) that they would stay there and wait for the coasties while they took the people to shore. It was pretty neat though to see the coast guard boat flying down there. They had to be doing 60mph in those choppy seas! I was also suprised not to hear the SOS from the sinking boat. He's lucky that it was a weekend and someone saw him. Not sure why there was no SOS. Maybe he went downstairs to see what the issue was and by then it was too late. The woman on the radio did yell that someone was still on the boat when it was going under... maybe that was the captain trying to figure out what the hell was going on. If I had to guess, I'd say it took less than 3 mins to sink from the initial radio call of a boat sinking. Nick

Well we started our week spring trip Friday and it started hot, but has sucked since. Blown off today, so I figured I'd take some time to post... Friday: Got up here in the afternoon and the lake was like glass, so we went out from 6:30-8:30. We went 6 for 8 with two teen kings and the rest around 10lbs. 220fow didn't matter where or what. Straight out. Saturday: Got up early and headed to the spot from the night before. The fish were gone. We managed two 6lb kings and a 5lb coho. Sunday: My parents and sister came up to see how great the fishing is in the spring out of wilson (well they should have taken a charter). We sucked. We went 6 miles west and found a screen that was just amazing. We'd watch the fish check out each of our riggers just to not bite. We managed one good rip on a dipsey that lasted about 30secs, and one small king, but that was it. Monday: We still suck. We traveled from 80fow to 350fow and marked very little. We managed to find a small picket and took two fish out of it a nice 20lb king on a 150' wire and a 8lb steelie on a rigger down 80' (figure that one out). Today we're blown off the lake and need to go find somewhere to empty the holding tank that my family filled (thanks mom and dad ). Hopefully, better days and reports to come! We're here until Saturday so hopefully we'll get out a few more times. Nick